Chapter 1038: A Case Of Magic Treasure Design Plagiarism

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

There was no doubt that this was an extremely vicious criminal. However, judging from the other side’s three demands, it wasn’t hard for Gao Tian to guess that he wanted to use this incident to reopen the case from back then. Without this big a ruckus, the truth of that case might always be buried in the dark and never see the light of day again.

And so, after thinking it over, Gao Tian gave the first instruction. “Arrange for the Immortal Arts Mobile Squadron lying in wait nearby to retreat ten kilometers away.”

“Yes…” Gao Tian was in command, and while the police officers behind him didn’t understand the reason for this withdrawal, they could only obey.

In fact, just three minutes earlier, the Immortal Arts Mobile Squadron had already come up with a kill plan. They were going to use a long-range flying sword and an infrared sensor magic treasure to target and kill the suspect inside the auditorium. Even in this situation, the success rate of this method was as high as eighty percent, and everything else would work out once the criminal was taken down.

But it was clear that Gao Tian’s aim wasn’t just to arrest the criminal. As a rule of thumb, a long-range sniper could indeed be used to take out the murderous hostage-taker, but the success rate wasn’t a hundred percent at present. If they failed, and provoked the murderer instead, all the students in the auditorium would suffer.

And one of the most important things was the criminal’s method.

This criminal had previously killed via Internet screen transmission. Such a bizarre method proved that the other side had a high realm, and he wasn’t an ordinary person. That was why they had to be more careful; there might be unimaginable risks if the other party sensed that they were deceiving him.

The scene could be considered pretty orderly by the time Gao Tian arrived. He gave Principal Zhou a storage pouch which he had brought with him from the police station. It contained three million yuan in cash; upon receiving the criminal’s demands, Gao Tian had immediately ordered a nearby bank to cooperate and come up with three million yuan at once.

The other party had a bigger plan; this cash extortion was nothing more than a formality, so Gao Tian estimated that the risk of the bank losing three million yuan was very small. Of course, even if they did ultimately lose the money, they would be compensated by the insurance company.

After moving past the police cordon, Gao Tian suddenly noticed that Little Silver and a green-furred dog which he had seen before were also here, and he was instantly astonished. “Why are the both of you here?”

The police and teachers on the side were also very helpless. They already had people withdraw according to Gao Tian’s instruction so that no one above the Golden Core stage remained, but Little Silver was a group leader of the Office of Strategic Deception and they couldn’t order him to leave at all.

“I was just passing by, and happened upon this commotion,” Little Silver said, before lowering his voice to say to Gao Tian, “Don’t worry. The green-furred dog and I have hidden our auras. The other side won’t be able to tell.”

Gao Tian: “…”

Actually, Little Silver wasn’t worried about the murderer being particular about this. The other side had demanded that people above the Golden Core stage withdraw… But Little Silver was a holy beast and Loopy Toad was a quasi-holy beast.

The ones to withdraw were human – what did it have to do with them as holy beasts?

Principal Zhou Dongye relaxed a little at Gao Tian’s arrival, but the current situation was still very tense.

“Can the video recording be delivered in half an hour?” Gao Tian asked.

Principal Zhou Dongye was blank, before he broke out in a cold sweat and nodded. “It should be alright…”

“Principal Zhou, I need an exact answer.”

“It can!”

After Principal Zhou Dongye said this, Gao Tian turned to look at the auditorium. “Sir, did you heard what Principal Zhou Dongye said? So we might as well have a chat about why you’re doing this.”

For a long time, there wasn’t any response from inside. In the next moment, however, an image was projected on an LCD screen outside the auditorium for everyone to see.

It was a design drawing of a pill furnace magic treasure.

The entire pill furnace was greenish gray in color, and its exterior was inlaid with jade and silver pearls. The pill furnace sat on spiral legs, each of which had 128 invisible air vents which could optimally minimize the internal pressure generated in the pill furnace during the refining process. Lastly, a ventilator was installed at the bottom of the pill furnace, reflecting its remarkable environmentally friendly concept.

This was the masterpiece which won the magic treasure design competition three years ago. In the lower right corner of the work was the name of the designer, “Raven.”

Actually, Raven wasn’t a person, but a code name for a well-known studio.

The founder and head of Raven Studio was none other than Fu Fusheng, a graduate of Magic Treasure Development University who was in the same year as Zheng Jingxuan.

The signature in the lower right corner of this “clean green spiral furnace” design blueprint was Student Fu Fusheng’s way of promoting the studio after he won the competition.

“Fu Fusheng,” Gao Tian muttered.

“Who is Fu Fusheng?” Little Silver asked.

“The founder of Raven Studio. It’s a famous magic treasure design studio in the industry. Student Fu Fusheng was in the same year as Student Zheng Jingxuan, and they were both outstanding talents in the same class,” Gao Tian said.

“So, the work Student Zheng Jingxuan plagiarized was Fu Fusheng’s?”

“That’s right.” Gao Tian nodded. “Back then, it was this Student Fu who first expressed doubts via public channels. It was because of this that all the media ultimately joined the crusade against the plagiarist, which led to that tragedy.”

Principal Zhou Dongye’s face turned increasingly unsightly as Gao Tian spoke. After mulling it over, Principal Zhou said, “Captain Gao, you should be thinking of ways to save my students, not flipping through old files. The school and society already settled on what happened back then. There were witness statements and material evidence for Zheng Jingxuan plagiarizing, and the verdict is irreversible. Bringing this old matter up again is nothing more than giving Student Zheng’s family new wounds, and Student Zheng’s spirit may not be able to rest in peace.”

“So is the truth truly what Principal Zhou Dongye says it is?”

“Captain, what do you mean?” Principal Zhou’s face darkened.

Gao Tian snorted and said to the man inside, “Mr Zheng, I know what your objective is. But what’s done is done. I hope you won’t make any more mistakes. You must have done a lot of research all these years; you might as well take this opportunity to voice out all the suspicions your investigation has uncovered, and all the people here will be witnesses.”

When Gao Tian said this, the man inside lapsed into a long silence.

“Mr Zheng?”

Zhou Dongye’s face paled at Gao Tian’s words; he didn’t expect the man inside to actually be Zheng Jingxuan’s father!

“Captain Gao is a capable person – you were actually able to guess my identity…” The man inside sighed.

“How did you know who the person inside is?” Little Silver asked in a low voice.

Gao Tian also whispered in reply, “I was just bluffing; I didn’t think he would be a wolf 1…”

Little Silver: “…”

…

Zheng Tianqiang, Zheng Jingxuan’s father, was behind this hostage situation as well as the serial murders.

What kind of new evidence did he have with regards to the irrefutable facts presented back then? A lot of the teachers had faint doubts in their hearts.

After a few minutes, Zheng Jingxuan’s father said from inside the auditorium, “I now want to ask a person some questions.”

“Who?” Gao Tian asked.

“Student Lin Shiyao should be here, right… Ask her to come forward for my first question…”

Footnotes:

Ch 1038 Footnote 1

Reference to “The Werewolves of Millers Hollow” card game.